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WOW bots battle in federal court

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  • WOW bots battle in federal court

    Legal battle over Warcraft 'bot'
    Combat forms a core part of the game play.

    The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting.

    Both sides have submitted legal summaries to a court in Arizona.

    Blizzard says Glide is a software bot which infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game.

    In its legal submission to the court last week, the firm said: "Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time."

    [i]'Infringed agreement' [\i]

    Blizzard argued that Michael Donnelly's tool also infringed the End User License Agreement that all parties have to adhere to when playing the game.

    More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold, according to Mr Donnelly. More than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft.

    Mr Donnelly said the first time had had been aware of potential legal action over his program was when a lawyer from Vivendi games, which publishes Warcraft, and an "unnamed private investigator" appeared at his home.

    In his legal submission, he detailed: "When they arrived, they presented Donnelly with a copy of a complaint that they indicated would be filed the next day in the US District Court for the Central District of California if Donnelly did not immediately agree to stop selling Glider and return all profits that he made from Glider sales."

    "Blizzard's audacious threats offended Donnelly," according to the legal papers.

    Mr Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no "copy" of the Warcraft game client software is ever made.

    Blizzard has said the tool infringes copyright because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software.

    The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgement in the case.

  • #2
    Missed opportunity for a "ROBOT WARS" thread.
    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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    • #3
      Suing cheaters
      DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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      • #4
        Blizzard
        I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
        For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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        • #5
          I'm surprised these dribbling imbeciles managed to crawl out of the basement long enough for a court battle.

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          • #6
            When you play a game designed around hitting the same sequence of keys for hours on end... you better damn well be the one hitting that sequence of keys!

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            • #7
              video games: serious business.

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              • #8
                One wonders, if there is an individual, who "spend(s) far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time", is he in danger of getting sued, too?
                I've allways wanted to play "Russ Meyer's Civilization"

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                • #9
                  The consuming resources argument doesn't really seem to work. if anything a bot produces more resources. That kind of sucks though because that drives prices down for things that you've spent a long time training to produce.
                  I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
                  - Justice Brett Kavanaugh

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                  • #10
                    They mean computing resources (ie, more cost to Blizzard), not in-game resources
                    <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                    I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Aeson
                      When you play a game designed around hitting the same sequence of keys for hours on end... you better damn well be the one hitting that sequence of keys!
                      HOLY CRAP! You just gave me the most awesome idea ever for a business. Two words: "trained pigeons." Or perhaps a higher-level trained monkey. I've never played WOW, but I saw my old roommate playing and the sequence of keys might be too complex for a pigeon to remember. A clever tamarin could, though. No problem.

                      Think about it. There's no way that Blizzard can realistically argue an animal assistant violates copyright or whatever. Get yourself a trained animal from a certified American behaviorist (another advantage: no money sent overseas to Chinese gold farmers) and generate any character you please for nothing more than kibble. Sure, it'll crap all over your desk and keyboard, but if you play WOW a lot hygiene probably isn't a major concern.
                      1011 1100
                      Pyrebound--a free online serial fantasy novel

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                      • #12
                        I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
                        - Justice Brett Kavanaugh

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                        • #13
                          I'm so glad I don't play WOW anymore.

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                          • #14
                            I'm so glad I never did play WOW.
                            Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Elok


                              HOLY CRAP! You just gave me the most awesome idea ever for a business. Two words: "trained pigeons." Or perhaps a higher-level trained monkey. I've never played WOW, but I saw my old roommate playing and the sequence of keys might be too complex for a pigeon to remember. A clever tamarin could, though. No problem.
                              You are way behind on the curve....

                              Hint: China
                              Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing?
                              Then why call him God? - Epicurus

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